Boise to Seattle Trip report (June)

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mikesl

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Hi all

Thought I would (finally) share the story of my Boise to Seattle Trip last June. It's a bit of a novel at this point, forgive me if that's not your thing.

This trip was primarily for work (Boise) and an opportunity to visit a friend in Seattle, but I managed to include a half day in the plan for some fishing.

I started in Boise at mid-day, with an 8+ hr drive to Seattle, and a plan to stay the night about an hour south of Seattle and fish the Snoqualmie River in the morning.

This was my first time in this part of the country (Idaho, eastern Oregon, central Washington) and I was surprised how arid the landscape was.

Here's a link to google maps showing the route
http://goo.gl/maps/Wk3m1

and here is a picture of the typical landscape northwest of Boise.

JP4JToM.jpg


My route took me past a number of big rivers and small streams, some of them famous trout waters. I know from asking advice before my trip that a lot of people on this forum are familiar with some of these, but for those who are less familiar, thought I would share some impressions from a nice flyfisherman's perspective.

The river that runs through Boise itself was quite warm… decided to skip it and hit the highway going northwest.

First river encountered outside Boise was the Snake, the interstate runs along its bank at Farewell Bend State park. On this day in June, it was big and muddy - I think this section is mostly fished for WW species, but also has trout and steelhead, and 9' sturgeon! I think the more famous trout waters are upstream / South of here. Not sure though.

Next I passed the Burnt River, a narrow, deep and fast-moving stream (well, by comparison to impaired, shallow, wide, eastern freestone creeks :) )
This was flowing nicely and looked rather promising, but with brambly banks and challenging looking wading (not to mention no Oregon license and trying to hit the cascades by dark) I didn't gear up to fish.
http://goo.gl/maps/wMuIC
What was interesting to me as an east-coast tourist in this part of the country was the cattleguards at all the interstate on and off-ramps.


Next River of note was Grand Ronde River near La Grande

This looked much more like my kind of stream - wider, shallower, and with easy bank access. I gather it is stocked in places in the spring, but water was quite warm already, in the mid 70's. I did fish this for a half hour, but without any success.
Km9D0KC.jpg



Crossing in to Washington State, you cross the Columbia - again, big and muddy and not something that registered for me with my 4wt, no guide and no drift boat :)

The terrain in central Washington seems to be high, rolling hills and very dry… the wine and apple regions along the major river valleys being a bit greener, but still look a lot more like mediterranean climate than like the central european that I imagined. The predominant radio format became spanish-language stations catering to the farm workers. I enjoyed listening to real Texano music wile driving… love that juxtaposition of mexican songs and guitars with german brass and accordion.

Got a great, authentically mexican chicken burrito in Yakima.

Continuing I-90 over the high arid terrain of central washington, you eventually come into some river valleys that are more fertile and green.

Got up close to the Yakima River in Cle Elum, but found it blown out. Still wet a line for good measure, and managed to catch something…. just not a trout.
VqEun2z.jpg

posted this one before… got hung up on a rock and came back with a nymph impaled. In a no bait area to boot.

Moved on from this spot, and crossed the Yakima a little further upstream of the confluence with the Cle Elum, where I found much more manageable flows, and a nice riffle under a bridge.
http://goo.gl/maps/YzFrp
Got there just at dusk, and got to see my first mayfly bigger than a size 14… these things were like helicopters compared to the BWO's and Sulphurs of my SE PA streams. Couldn't buy a fish though, and had to head out due to darkness after a short while.

Crossed the cascades at the Snoqualmie pass, and stayed at a motel in Tanner, WA, which seems mostly a stopover for truckers in case the pass is closed in winter.

The next morning (a Saturday) I woke early, being on east coat time, and drove up the national forest road that parallels the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River.
I ended up driving my rental car on about 20 miles of potholed dirt road that followed the river, and seemed to just keep going and going. There certainly is something to be said about the scale of things out West.

Here is some typical scenery in the Snoqualmie National Forest
I am not much of a photographer, but you get the idea… The trees are huge, and everything is wet and covered with moss. Ferns and moss make up the ground layer.
ji7qMeH.jpg


As for the river itself, it was high… running about 2000cfs as I recall. I was monitoring the flows before my trip, but didn't really grasp mentally that in late June it would be blown out with snowmelt. Makes me feel fortunate that our PA streams are fishable pretty much year-round.
GTfAaXC.jpg


So, I kept driving up the forest road, trying to get to a smaller tributary upstream.
A few miles up the road, saw this little mystery:
zanJMFb.jpg


Turns out wooden pipes are a thing. back in the day when lugging in concrete or steel drainage pipes for culverts was not practical, they made redwood pipes, and they last a long time.

At one point, the road crossed a small tributary, and I stopped the car to take a look from the bridge… and saw a rise.
There was a nice little side stream, with a pool upstream of the bridge that looked like it could have been made by an old beaver dam perhaps.

Here's the view back to the bridge:
AUr5Kqu.jpg


And here is the next hole upstream
S4AVfND.jpg


And if you made it this far, here are some FISH: Feisty, aggressive, coastal cutthroat, all taken on a single parachute adams.

pItNLOc.jpg


h2G6QEx.jpg


6BdmeK6.jpg


DnU7ubJ.jpg


This trip was a great adventure, just wish i had a little more time. This little spot and the wild cutthroats are etched in my mind as one of my better fishing memories of the past year.





 
Without pictures it would have been a short story, add pictures and it's a trip report. Thanks for sharing. My sister lives on Bainbridge Island and has asked me for 20 years to visit but I just can't seem to find the time.
 
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